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Hello all,

I am new to this website so if this is the wrong place for this, I am sorry. I have a question about the CSX line running south out of Walbridge Yard towards Fostoria. I have done some searching for the actual "Division" name and came up with "Pemberville Subdivision". I was just wondering if that was correct as my family is starting a model railroad layout and that is the division we will be modeling.

Another question. The old line running south out of Stanley yard was owned by C&O if my info is correct. Why was that eliminated? Just curious.

Thanks for any information on these subjects.

Rob

Hi Rob...welcome to the forum...
first things first, the line between Walbridge and Fostoria is actually part of the Columbus Subdivision which runs from Columbus to Walbridge and its original owner was the Hocking Valley Railway then C&O. The abandoned rail line which passes on the west side of Pemberville is an ex Toledo and Ohio Central Railroad ex New York Central ex Penn Central ex Conrail which was promptly abandoned around the early 80s, around 84-86

Walbridge to Town Street in Fostoria is the Pemberville sub of the Chicago Division. Town street to west end B&O center siding is the fostoria sub of Great Lakes division and from that point south (east as railroad calls it) is the Columbus sub of the Huntington Division. The former T&OC was gone before ConRail came to be on April 1976.

JoJames wrote:Walbridge to Town Street in Fostoria is the Pemberville sub of the Chicago Division. Town street to west end B&O center siding is the fostoria sub of Great Lakes division and from that point south (east as railroad calls it) is the Columbus sub of the Huntington Division. The former T&OC was gone before ConRail came to be on April 1976.

i guess i didn't do my homework..thanks for filling in the inaccurac ies

rthornton wrote: Another question. The old line running south out of Stanley yard was owned by C&O if my info is correct. Why was that eliminated? Just curious.

I think you're thinking about Walbridge (which was a C&O yard) and there never was a line running south out of Stanley - the track that goes south under the turnpike is the runner and used to shove trains into the south end of the yard but never went further as far as I'm aware (it was built as a single end yard I think). There's no evidence of any line there on these 1914 or 1967 maps and it was a Conrail (ex-NYC) yard. The NYC line that went south from Stanley was the Toledo Branch (down through Bowling Green) and is still an active CSX line.

http://www.railsandtrails.com/Maps/Ohio ... nw-100.jpg

http://www.railsandtrails.com/Maps/PC-O ... 67-050.jpg

Regards,
Michael

EDIT to add:

"Hump Yards in Ohio: Stanley Yard
Author: Kyle Montgomery
Category: History Railroads: CSX

Stanley Yard, located in Lake Township, was constructed by the Toledo & Ohio Central in 1913. It was first use as a hump yard in 1930, although in these days brakemen riding on the backs of cars served the same purpose as the modern automatic retarder systems of today.

The T&OC was leased by the New York Central System in 1922 and formally merged into the larger company in 1938. The yard became part of the ill-fated Penn Central merger in 1968 and eventually made its way through the Conrail breakup, becoming part of CSX in 1998. Over time the Penn Central and Conrail consolidated many of their Toledo-area operations in Stanley Yard."

http://www.ohiovalleyrail.com/2009/hist ... nley-yard/

The "runner" at Stanley is a remnant of the old T&OC "eastern" route from Toledo to Columbus. At one time this was the preferred routng for the NYC between those points (which is why the Toledo/Berwick portion was chosen for the nation's first CTC installation). The "western" side gained preference late in the NYC days.

Thanks for all the information guys. It is greatly appreciated. Mr. Schwiebert, thanks for responding. Your cousin, my wife, Wendy (Thieroff) says "HI".

rthornton wrote:Thanks for all the information guys. It is greatly appreciated. Mr. Schwiebert, thanks for responding. Your cousin, my wife, Wendy (Thieroff) says "HI".

WR tower at the south end of Walbridge Yard is where the Pemberville sub starts. I also know your wife as I grew up in the same house with Mr Schwiebert. You can tell her I said Hi also.

Glad I could help! Say hello for me as well!

JoJames wrote:

rthornton wrote:Thanks for all the information guys. It is greatly appreciated. Mr. Schwiebert, thanks for responding. Your cousin, my wife, Wendy (Thieroff) says "HI".

WR tower at the south end of Walbridge Yard is where the Pemberville sub starts. I also know your wife as I grew up in the same house with Mr Schwiebert. You can tell her I said Hi also.

MDH wrote:

rthornton wrote: "...there never was a line running south out of Stanley - the track that goes south under the turnpike is the runner and used to shove trains into the south end of the yard but never went further as far as I'm aware (it was built as a single end yard I think). There's no evidence of any line there on these 1914 or 1967 maps and it was a Conrail (ex-NYC) yard...."
/

The line which runs out of Stanley is very plainly shown on both maps-the New York Central to Pemberville, Fostoria, Berwick and so on. The line is the same which ran through Fostoria. For awhile during Penn Central, they would use this "Eastern Branch" and the "Western (Toledo) Branch" as directional running-Southbounds on one, Northbounds on the other, from Toledo to Kenton. Trains on the Eastern would turn the corner at Berwick.

cr6903 wrote:

MDH wrote:

rthornton wrote: "...there never was a line running south out of Stanley - the track that goes south under the turnpike is the runner and used to shove trains into the south end of the yard but never went further as far as I'm aware (it was built as a single end yard I think). There's no evidence of any line there on these 1914 or 1967 maps and it was a Conrail (ex-NYC) yard...."
/

The line which runs out of Stanley is very plainly shown on both maps-the New York Central to Pemberville, Fostoria, Berwick and so on. The line is the same which ran through Fostoria. For awhile during Penn Central, they would use this "Eastern Branch" and the "Western (Toledo) Branch" as directional running-Southbounds on one, Northbounds on the other, from Toledo to Kenton. Trains on the Eastern would turn the corner at Berwick.

OK - major "Duh" moment for me - for some reason I didn't think it came directly out of the south end of Stanley but obviously did. Thanks for the corrections. It doesn't help that my personal "history" in NW Ohio only goes back to the mid-90's!

Most of the rails have been pulled up south of Stony Ridge but you can still see a lot of the ROW of the T&OC on Land Sat images (google earth etc...) as very little of it has been reclaimed (from Toledo to Fostoria). There is still enough to trace it south to Thurston OH where it meets up with the western branch of the T&OC (cur CSX - ex Conrail ex PC ex NYC). There isn't much left of the old T&OC north of the reroute to Union Station (Toledo) as it originally continued to Main st. in Toledo where the original T&OC Station was located.

The T&OC Eastern Branch still serviced Luckey into the 80's. I believe during the Penn Central Years it went to Pemberville. However I couldn't find the article from when the rail road discontinued to Pemberville.

Check out this thread for T&OC maps and History
viewtopic.php?f=26&t=19484&p=161427

If you are modeling the Pemberville area in the 50's you would really want to consider including the NYC (T&OC)

JoJames wrote:WR tower at the south end of Walbridge Yard is where the Pemberville sub starts. I also know your wife as I grew up in the same house with Mr Schwiebert. You can tell her I said Hi also.

WR is at the west end of Walbridge yard, or directional north. VR Tower is at the east end of Walbridge Yard, or directional south.

sd70accsxt700 wrote:

JoJames wrote:WR tower at the south end of Walbridge Yard is where the Pemberville sub starts. I also know your wife as I grew up in the same house with Mr Schwiebert. You can tell her I said Hi also.

WR is at the west end of Walbridge yard, or directional north. VR Tower is at the east end of Walbridge Yard, or directional south.

Ok. I knew there was a WR and VR. So VR is where the Pemberville sub begins?

Yes that is where it starts.

Thanks for all the detailed information and pictures. This will make things alot easier building our H.O. scale layout.

Again Thanks,
Rob

Is there a website that has pictures of the Walbridge or Stanley yards that I could use for reference. I plan on taking pictures of my own but didnt know if there was a site out there that already had some on it. Thanks.

I like maps.google.com and google earth I use the satellite and street views.
When those aren't enough I turn to maps.bing.com and use the bird's eye view.

Again, thanks to all that responded to this thread. Now that we have started benchwork for our layout, I have posted a new thread in the Model Railroading section titled "Chicago Division - Pemberville Sub Layout". Check out our progress. Thanks, Rob